Parallels Between Oedipus Rex and Minority Report

1524 Words7 Pages
Parallels between Oedipus the King and Minority Report Steven Spielberg’s futuristic 2002 film, Minority Report, and Sophocles’ tragic Oedipus the King share many themes and motifs, as well as many of the characters with the same personalities. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus starts out as king of the city, but he soon finds out the truth about his life, and his life starts to fall apart, until, at the end of the play, he has a tragic and shameful downfall. In Spielberg’s film too, John Anderton starts out as the chief of a revolutionary new murder-prevention system. However, here too, John finds out that he was destined to kill someone, which is when his life starts falling apart, and he turns into the nation’s most wanted criminal. Both Oedipus the King and Minority Report use eyes as a motif, they both are tragedies, and they both have similar characters. These two works may look, at first glance, like two completely different performances. However, with closer analysis, it is clear, that they are very much alike. Spielberg’s Minority Report has many parallels to Oedipus the King, and among them are the use of eyes, and the tragic aspect to them both. However, they are slightly different, in that Spielberg had to make some adjustments to the plot in order to suit a more modern and tougher audience. One of the many parallels between Oedipus the King and Minority Report is the use of eyes as a motif. For instance in Spielberg’s film, everyone was identified by a machine that scanned their eyes, and the government had a database with everyone’s eye “fingerprint”. There are many other minor examples, such as the drug that John Anderton is addicted to, which is called Clarity. Additionally, the drug dealer where John bought the drugs poked his own eyes out so that these eye-scanners wouldn’t recognize him. There are many more examples like this; however

More about Parallels Between Oedipus Rex and Minority Report

Open Document